Sunday, October 14, 2012

Oct 11th to 13th - Mesa

Oct 11th – Thurs - Mesa
I hurried out early this morning in my PJs to pull our chairs under the awning and put bags on our bike seats to protect them from rain.
After our “coffee & doughnuts” meeting, we went for a bike ride.  We stopped at Neal & Judi’s as Terry had another idea about his satellite dish – didn’t work – and then stopped for a short chat with Larry & Julie.  I posted the blog and checked email before making a late breakfast.
I vacuumed and did one of my favorite jobs – cleaning the louvers in the door to our closet by the entry door.  Terry took down our sun shade and put up the awning as high winds are predicted today.
We went to Dennis & Gloria’s to pick up some Scotch that they had picked up for Terry when they made a trip to Total Wine.  They are nearly done unpacking everything that they brought down with them.
We went to an Oktoberfest celebration at Tower Point (another Cal-Am park) at 4.  We joined Bill & Lauri, Larry & Julie and Joe & Stella for drinks and dinner.  There was a country group outside to provide music before dinner and an “oompah” band inside.  We were going to sit outside after dinner but just as we found a table, the band quit playing so we headed back to our place and continued the party here - Dennis & Gloria and Bev joined us.  We had to get cozy under the awning when it rained again and there was quite a thunder & lightning show.

Oct 12th – Fri
Wind gusts continued this morning.  We were having coffee when I called Terry’s attention to our awning bouncing around.  When he went to put it up we saw Bruce & Ann helping Bev control her free standing shade awning.  We went to help and discovered that the wind grabbed hold and actually broke part of the frame.  As we were helping take off the cover, we saw Lorraine holding down their shade awning while Jaime went to the store for a couple more stakes to add tie-down straps on all corners rather than just 3.  Bruce & Terry helped put up Bev’s awning as it had anti-flap straps that require a ladder to undo.  And then the wind gusts pretty much quit!!
Dave & Karen, friends of Bev and Lorraine & Jaime, arrived and were having trouble backing into a site with a tree and a park model on the other side.  Terry got involved and first suggested that they should be coming in the other way.  When Dave backed up to turn around, he couldn’t turn sharp enough to avoid a palm tree.  Since our neighbors were gone and their parking space was empty, Terry then had Dave pull onto their spot and an empty site and then back straight into his spot – phew!  Later Terry apologized for butting in to the ranger who was directing the parking and he said “where were you when I just spent an hour getting someone else parked?”.
Larry & Norma told us that Sears was having great clearance sales so we had to check it out.  I got a pair of “dancing shoes” and was very happy with the $7.50 price!  When we got back I went to chat with Bev for a while.
We went to listen to music in the courtyard at 3.  We joined Larry & Norma at a table and by the time the music started there were 2 other tables pulled up to accommodate everyone.   We spent a rare evening by ourselves.

Oct 13th – Sat
We went for a bike ride this morning and returned a book to Julie.  Her nephew, Jess Walters, is an author who lives in Spokane and Julie has lent me some of his books.  I enjoyed the first book much more than this one and have another to read.  We rode 3 miles – our new goal for each ride? – and came back to have a late breakfast. 
I needed some new shorts so we went to Kohl’s where I actually found a pair.  Terry was walking out of his old sandals so we continued on to Penney’s and he got a better deal than I did yesterday – $7!  We were sitting outside watching golf on TV when Bev, Lorraine & Karen returned from a 5 hour shopping trip so I had to go check out their purchases.
We made a drink and walked to Dennis & Gloria’s where we found them chatting with Bruce & Ann who we met earlier and who are just a couple of sites away from Dennis & Gloria.  We stayed for quite a while before heading home for dinner.

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